Nobody Said it Was Easy
by The Original Horcrux
Summary: Having three children wasn't easy, even more so that those were three girls, but when a fourth pregnancy enters the picture, they really start to understand that wanting a boy might just be out of their reach. In this life anyway.
1. 10th January 2008

10th January 2008

"Mummy, Mummy, Daddy, Daddy!" Abigail Longbottom yelled, running into her parents' room at the crack of dawn on the morning of her third birthday. "Wake up! Wake up."

Luna Longbottom rolled over groggily in bed, trying to open her eyes as her now three year old daughter jumped up and down on her feet.

"Happy Birthday Abi!" she said, sitting up and attempting to pull her daughter into a hug, but was bowled over in the darkness by a small body being thrown at her. She heard the light click on and saw her husband, Neville Longbottom, sitting up groggily, but with a little smile on his face.

"Happy Birthday Abigail," he said, plucking her off Luna and giving her a huge hug, "How old are you today?"

"Three!" she said with a grin, holding up two fingers, Neville laughed, taking her small hand in his and putting up a third.

"Are you really that old already?" he asked in mock amazement. Abi nodded excitedly, bouncing up and down on her parents' bed.

"Mummy, Abi woke me up," six-year-old Alice said, coming into the room and also clambering up onto the bed, "and Ella won't stop crying,"

"Fu -_dge_ muffins." Neville said, saving himself at the last second, "How long has she been awake for?"

"Since Abi started yelling and screaming," muttered Alice, snuggling up to Luna underneath the blankets."

"Sh-_oot_" Neville said, throwing back the covers and rushing out of the room. Now that Abi had stopped jumping up and down and squealing excitedly, she could hear her youngest daughter, Eleanor, cries.

"Where's daddy going?" Abi asked curiously crawling up the bed to sit on Luna's pillow.

"He's gone to get Ella," Luna explained.

"When he's got Ella, then can I open my presents?" Abi asked eagerly.

"Yes, you can." Luna said with a smile as she lay her head back down on the pillows, thinking about the discussion that she and Neville had had a few weeks ago, she still didn't know what to think about that conversation.

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by Neville coming into the room with Ella, who had stopped crying but looked very grumpy.

"Give her here," Luna said, holding her arms out for her youngest daughter, "Go and get Abi's presents." Neville nodded, handing Ella to Luna and quickly walking out of the room to get the presents from the special hiding spot that they kept their children's presents in.

"Mummy?" Alice said curiously, looking up at Luna from her position, which was currently curled up underneath her left arm.

"Yes Alice," Luna said tolerantly as she tried to rock Ella back to sleep.

"Why don't I have a brother?" she asked, "Dominique has a sister and a brother but I only have sisters."

"Well," Luna said, wondering how best to explain the inner workings of genders to her six year old daughter, "You don't get to pick a gender for your baby, and so far you've ended up all being girls."

"But that's silly," Alice said, furrowing her brow, "If you get to choose our names, why don't you choose if we're a boy or a girl?"

"That's not the way it works, Ally." Luna laughed, but was cut off as Neville walked into the room with a bag of presents for Abi, singing happy birthday.

_Happy Birthday to you,_ they sung, Alice joining in promptly and even little Ella clapped her hands excitedly,  
_Happy birthday to you  
Happy birthday dear Abi  
Happy Birthday to you!_

Abi squealed in delight as Neville put the bag of presents in front of her and dove for them immediately. Both Neville and Luna smiled as they watched their daughter unwrap a toy broomstick.

"Yes! Thank you mummy, thank you daddy!" she said, jumping on immediately and taking off, all of her other presents forgotten.

"Abi, you're going to break something!" Neville called half-heartedly after her as Alice ran out of the room in pursuit.

"I'll be careful daddy, I promise!" they heard Abi yell back. Ella started to squirm in Luna's arms,

"Down, mummy," she said, her two year old lisp making the sentence hard to pronounce, "I wan go play wif Alice and Abi."

"Alright then," Luna said, putting Ella on the ground and watching her toddle off after her sisters.

"We should really watch them…" Neville said, leaning back against his pillow and looking at the door.

"In a minute," Luna said, mimicking his actions and wondering if she should bring up the question that Alice had asked beforehand about not having a brother.

"What was that?" Neville asked and Luna realised that she must've been thinking aloud again, something that she did increasingly often nowadays. She had no choice but to tell him now

"Alice asked me why she didn't have a brother," Luna shrugged, "I told her that we couldn't chose the gender and she told me that it was stupid"

"That sounds like her," Neville laughed, "I bet she's going to be in Ravenclaw when she gets to Hogwarts." And then, lowering his voice to a whisper so that the girls wouldn't hear, he whispered, "Are you pregnant yet?"

"You have to wait for at least a month, Neville." Said Luna with a laugh, "People of the male gender really are clueless when it comes to pregnancy aren't they? You'd think that after three daughters, you'd know what was to come."

"In my defence, the last three were complete surprises," Neville said, crossing his arms in mock offence. Luna opened her mouth to reply when they were cut off by a crashing sound and a yell of pain.

"We should've watched them," Neville yelled, as the two of them threw back the covers simultaneously and rushed out of their room towards the source of the commotion, which happened to be in the kitchen.

"Abi, you told us you'd be _careful_." Luna said, upon seeing Abi sniffling on the ground next to a broken vase, her toy broomstick hovering by her head.

"I was careful mummy, it just fell off and I got a shock." Abi sniffed adamantly. Neville shook his head at his daughter's antics and drew his wand to repair the glass.

"Where are your sisters?" Luna asked, looking around for Alice and Ella who were no-where to be seen.

"In the treehouse," Abi said as Neville picked her up off the ground, "they said that they were going to have a tea party."

"Well they can have a tea party after we've had breakfast, I'll go and get them." Luna said, glancing at Neville who was kissing Abi's knee which she seemed to have bruised when she fell off the toy broom.

"What do you want for breakfast birthday girl?" Neville asked as Luna walked out, calling for the eldest and the youngest girl to come inside for breakfast.

"Pancakes!" Abi exclaimed happily, all thought of her bruised knee forgotten.

"Pancakes it is then!" Neville said, putting Abi down on the kitchen bench and summoning the ingredients to him out of the cupboards and the fridge and beginning the process of making pancakes from scratch.

"Breakfast smells nice," Luna remarked, walking in about fifteen minutes later with Alice and Ella.

"We're having pancakes!" Abi exclaimed to a happy squeal from Alice.

"Thank you daddy, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said, running into the kitchen and hugging Neville around his waist.

"You're welcome Ally," Neville said, patting the top of her head with one hand as he flipped the pancake over with the other.

"Alice, Abi, why don't you come and play with Ella while daddy makes breakfast?" Luna suggested, "Then time will go faster and you'll get your pancakes in no time."

"Alright!" Abi said, trying to clamber down from the kitchen bench, using the drawer handles as ladder rungs.

"Let's play hide and seek!" Alice said, "I'm in, so you've got to be hidden by the time I count to ten!"

Luna smiled as she watched Ella and Abi run around, frantically trying to find a hiding spot, with Abi wrapping herself up in the curtains and Ella crawling underneath the couch. She suddenly felt a wave of nausea wash over her and last night's roast dinner threatened to come out of the hatch.

She rushed to the bathroom, walking quickly rather than running so that Neville wouldn't worry. It was lucky that she had, because once there, last night's roast dinner _did_ come out of the hatch as she vomited everything she had in her system into the toilet. It was probably just the stomach bug that Alice had got a few weeks ago…

* * *

**AN: This is for the "Nine Months Pregnancy Challenge" on HPFC… Wow this is crap… I've got nothing to go on except my imagination as none of this is canon… I also feel like I've overdone it with having three kids already in the picture before the fourth is born… gah, you're welcome to criticise. **

**Until Next Time**

**~The Original Horcrux~**


	2. 19th February 2008

19th February 2008

"I don't want to go to visit Grandma and Grandpa, it's _boring_." Alice protested, stamping her foot when her parents announced over breakfast that they would be visiting Neville's parents in St. Mungo's that day.

"We'll take you to Dominique's afterwards if you cooperate, now eat your egg." Neville said, pointing at the scrambled eggs on Alice's plate that she was pushing around with her fork.

"Can I floo to Dominique's tonight?" Alice asked excitedly, "Just to talk to her?"

"Only if you eat your eggs," Neville said, knowing full well that Alice would be too exhausted to speak to Dominique by the time they'd got back from St. Mungo's that day.

"But I don't like eggs. They don't taste nice." Alice said, wrinkling her nose at them.

"I like eggs, look Daddy!" Abi said, shovelling a spoonful of eggs into her mouth and grinning at Alice in a triumphant way.

"Very good Abi, see Alice, Abi likes eggs, why don't you two have a race to see who can finish theirs first." Neville said, he knew that the best way to get his two eldest daughters to do anything was through competition against each other.

"Okay!" Alice said and the two of them narrowed their eyes at each other and brought their spoons to attention.

"Ready, set, Go!" Neville said, bringing his hand down onto the table and the two girls started shovelling eggs into their mouth at lightning speed. Luna shook her head at Neville, with a smile on her face.

"If you keep doing this they'll end up more like rivals than sisters." She said, spooning a mixture of baby food into Ella's mouth.

"Nothing wrong with a little healthy competition," Neville grinned as Alice held her plate out for him to see, her cheeks bulging with scrambled eggs while Abi struggled to fit any more in her mouth.

"I won daddy!" Alice said, swallowing her food.

"Not fair!" Abi whined, "You cheated!"

"Did not!" Alice protested, "I'm just better than you."

"You cheated!" Abi insisted.

Luna gave Neville a 'see what I mean' look over the table and Neville rolled his eyes, breaking up the small cat fight that had started to occur between the two girls.

"Alright girls that's enough," Neville said, taking both of their plates away and taking them out to the kitchen. "Alice, go and get dressed, Abi come with me and we'll find something for you to wear."

Sulking, Alice walked out of the dining room and into the corridor leading down towards her room. Abi jumped down from her chair and rushed over to Neville, tripping on the corner of the carpet as she did so.

"What colour do you feel like wearing today?" Neville asked, picking her up with a grunt. "Pink?" Abi wrinkled her nose.

"No!" she said, disgusted, "I _hate_ pink, I want to wear blue."

"Alright then, let's go and get dressed." Neville said, putting their plates in the sink and following after Alice to get Abi ready.

Luna watched her husband and daughter walk out of the kitchen, leaving her alone with Ella who was doing her best to make a thorough mess of everything as Luna stared absent mindedly after Abi and Neville.

"Ella!" Luna exclaimed, looking back at the two year old, only to find that she had stuck her hand in the jar of baby food that Luna was feeding her and started to smear it everywhere. "We don't play with food." Ella just laughed, smearing more of the puree on her face. Luna sighed, "Well, I'll just have to give you a bath then won't I? You're such a cheeky girl." Luna said, as Ella tried to put some of the puree onto her mother.

Luna lifted Ella out of her high chair, carefully avoiding getting any of the puree on her clothes and walked into the bathroom. It had been a while since she'd gone into their downstairs bathroom, in fact, the last time she'd gone in there was on Abi's birthday a month ago when she'd had to throw up. Luna hadn't thought of it since, it had just been a one off thing, probably a stomach bug as she had been better the next morning and hadn't thrown up since… well, she'd thrown up once since then, that same morning. She'd woken up at the crack of dawn for no particular reason, only to find that within minutes, she had bolted out of bed and headed for the bathroom to throw up.

This time she hadn't disregarded it as a stomach bug, in fact, she took the morning nausea quite seriously. She had immediately counted the days from her last period, only to find that she was a week late. She looked back on the past few weeks for any symptoms that might be able to make her surer of whether she could be pregnant or not. She found three; she'd been increasingly tired lately, at first she'd just thought that it was the stress of having three young children in the house that was starting to take its toll, but then she remembered a second symptom. The cravings, she'd been wanting a pizza all week, but had resisted grudgingly because Neville wanted the girls to eat healthily. And finally, the third symptom; her supposed 'cold' that she'd had about a month ago for a few weeks, she'd been feeling a little bit blocked up ever since and couldn't help but wonder if it was a sign of pregnancy, it had been when she was pregnant with Ella. Of course, she didn't have time to take a pregnancy test there and then because Ella had woken up and the rest of the house was bound to follow. She guessed that it was a good thing that they were going to St Mungo's then, because she could go to Healer Smith, who had delivered all of her children so far, and get a pregnancy potion from her. Maybe, just maybe they might be in with a shot to get their son.

* * *

"This isn't the way to Grandma and Grandpa's room," Alice said, straining against the hold that Neville had on her hand, "It's that way!"

"They've been moved, sweetie, they're getting a little bit better so they've been moved into a new room." Neville explained patiently. Before they'd gotten married, Luna had always told him that he would be good with kids, especially his own ones and how true that statement had rung. Neville never yelled and was nothing short of wrapped around all three of his daughter's little fingers.

"Does that mean that they'll be able to say my name?" Abi asked childishly as Luna adjusted Ella so that she could hold Abi's hand while Neville opened the door to the ward.

"I don't know Abi," Luna replied as Ella drooled all over her blouse. Luna was beyond the point of caring, after three children and possibly a fourth on the way her clothes had endured a lot of drool.

"I've got to go and pick up something from Extended Magical Injuries for dad," Luna said to Neville after greeting her mother and father in law, "Will you be alright with these three?" she asked, nodding at their three children who, however disappointed they had been that morning about visiting their grandparents, were absolutely smitten with them, crawling all over their beds while their grandparents hugged them and told them stories in the few words that they could speak now.

"Yeah, they'll be fine." Neville said, giving Luna a kiss on the cheek, "Hurry back."

"See you soon," Luna said, waving quickly at Ella who stuck three fingers in her mouth and started sucking on them.

Luna hated lying to Neville, but she didn't want to let him in on the pregnancy just in case she wasn't pregnant, she didn't want to have to break that news to him so, instead of turning right towards Extended Magical Injuries, she turned left towards Maternity. The number of times she had walked down this hall during her last three pregnancies, she couldn't count. The first two had gone smoothly, but her third, with Ella, she'd experienced some difficulties which had resulted in an early labour, causing the healers to refer to Eleanor Longbottom as the 'miracle child'.

Luna walked down the hall until she found a door with a plaque that read "SMITH" in big white letters. She knocked on the door three times and waited for Healer Smith to answer the door.

"This better be good, Grace, because I have so much work to do and- Oh, hi Luna." Healer Smith said, opening the door to see that she was not another colleague, but a client.

"Hello," Luna said, "Do you mind if I come in?"

"No, not at all," Healer Smith said, opening the door wide so that Luna could step past her, "How's Eleanor these days?"

"Ella's fine," Luna said, "She's developing like any normal child."

"That's great!" Healer Smith said, sitting down behind her desk and tidying up some papers, "So, what can I do for you today?"

"Do you have a pregnancy potion? I think I might be pregnant again." Luna said calmly.

"Again!" Healer Smith exclaimed, "Alright then, there's one in the bathroom cabinet, you know where to go."

"Thank you," Luna said, getting up and making her way to the bathroom. The bonus about taking a pregnancy potion at St Mungos, was that they were already brewed for you, and you didn't need to take an hour out of your time to brew it up yourself. Luna was very familiar with the pregnancy potion protocol by now; you had to urinate in a small cup and tip it into the vial and then wait for a minute. If it turned blue, it was negative, pink it was positive.

Luna picked up an issue of _Witch Weekly_ and began to read as she completed the last step of her potion. These minutes when you had to wait for the final result were the longest of her life.

There was nothing particularly interesting in _Witch Weekly_ so within thirty seconds Luna was bored.

"Come on, come on…" Luna said, jumping up and down impatiently, waiting for the test to finish its cycle. She started to fiddle with her hair in the mirror, twirling the dirty blond waves around her finger and wondering if she would look better with her hair behind or in front of her ears.

The whistling from the potion telling her that it was done was the most welcome sound right then. Turning back around she saw that the little vial of potion was pink. She was pregnant… again.

* * *

**AN: I'm very surprised that a lot of people actually **_**liked **_**this, I'm very unsure about it which is unusual because I can normally tell if my writing is good or not, (yes I'm a little full of myself) Anyway, I hope you're still enjoying it!**

**I love reviews, so keep them coming!**

**Until Next Time**

**~The Original Horcrux~**


	3. 23rd March 2008

23rd March 2008

"Neville," Luna whispered, shaking her husband's shoulder gently after climbing back into bed after having violent morning sickness, she couldn't hide it until the scan anymore, she was already starting to show a bit. Plus, she wanted Neville there.

"Mmh." Neville said, his voice muffled by the pillow, "Luna, It's six in the morning."

"I have to tell you something," she whispered, pushing his shoulder so he would wake up, "Please, Neville, before the girls wake up."

"Fine," He muttered, turning over to face her, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "What is so important."

Luna took a deep breath, "I'm pregnant."

Neville's jaw dropped open in a mixture of surprise and shock, "What? Really, oh that's amazing Luna!" he said, a smile spreading across his face as he threw himself at her in a hug. "How far along are you?"

"About twelve weeks," Luna said, happy that he wasn't asking her how long she'd known, that would lead to somewhere that she didn't want to go. "I've got a scan today, I was thinking we could take the girls to my dad's place, he's always happy to mind them."

"You've got a scan _today_? How did you manage to get in on such short notice?" Neville asked incredulously.

"I didn't" Luna said softly, the conversation had arrived at why she hadn't told him sooner. "I've known for about a month."

"And you didn't tell me?" Neville said, his face contorting into an offended expression, "Why?"

"I- I didn't want a repeat of last time." Luna muttered, and lowering her voice even further, "I just didn't want to have told anyone, just in case I had a miscarriage."

"Oh Luna," Neville said sympathetically, pulling her back in for a comforting hug as a tear rolled down Luna's cheek.

"I-I just c-can't stop thinking about it," she sobbed, "We would've had our son by now."

"I know, I know, shh" Neville said, patting Luna's hair, "It's okay though, because you're pregnant now."

"But Neville, Ella would've had a twin, are we ever going to tell her?" Luna sniffed, "I don't want h-him to b-be forgotten."

She was referring, of course, to the stillborn twin that had been stillborn just over two years ago. Benjamin Neville Longbottom, they had named him. The complications that Luna had suffered when she was pregnant with Ella and Ben had cost Ben his life, and she still blamed herself for that, despite Neville's insistence that it wasn't her fault.

"I just wish that it had never happened." Luna sniffed, "That I could go back in time and fix it."

"You'll be fine," Neville said, "We'll both be fine, that's a promise, and I never break promises."

"I know," Luna said, trying to force a smile, "I just don't' want it to happen again and I was scared that If I told you, that it might happen."

"I don't blame you in the slightest, my love." Neville said, kissing Luna softly on the cheek, "Now, how about I get the girls up and ready and you ask your dad to babysit?"

"Sounds good," Luna replied, wiping her eyes, "I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

"Be good, alright girls." Neville said, as he handed Ella over to Xenophilius and kissed Alice and Abi goodbye, "We'll be back in about an hour, so don't bother Grandpa too much."

"Yes daddy," Alice said, permitting her father to kiss her goodbye, "I'll make sure that Abi doesn't break anything."

Xenophilius laughed, "Don't worry about it Alice, I've put everything away that she can knock over."

"She's so clumsy," Alice teased, sticking her tongue out at her younger sister.

"I am not!" Abi protested, stamping her foot and crossing her arms grumpily.

"Don't tease your sister either, Alice." Neville joked sternly, pointing at her as Abi scowled at her.

"Yes Daddy," Alice said, smiling winningly as Neville turned to walk out of the door.

"Thanks for doing this on such short notice, Dad." Luna said, kissing her father on the cheek.

"It's fine, I like spending time with my grandchildren." He bounced Ella up and down in his arms, "I just wish you'd tell me where you're going."

"I promise we'll tell you when we come and collect them," Luna said, "We can't really tell anyone at the moment."

"Well, good luck with whatever you're doing." Xenophilius said as Neville and Luna turned towards the door. "We'll have a grand and glorious party while you're gone."

"Dad!" Luna said, "Don't spoil them."

"I'll spoil them if I want to, plus, I've just got some sightings of a crumple horned snorkak in from Bolivia, you know how Alice loves them." Xenophilius said eagerly, waving from the door.

"Bye dad!" Luna called, "Bye girls."

And the two of them disapparated with a small pop.

* * *

"Mr and Mrs Longbottom" Healer Smith called happily as she came out into the waiting room. Luna rose from her seat, Neville following her.

"Good to see you again," Neville said, smiling at her. She had become their friend through their many pregnancies.

"As it is to see you." She said, shutting the door of the room behind her, "Going again are you?"

"Yes," Luna said, lying down on the table and pulling her shirt up so that her slightly swollen stomach was exposed.

"This is so exciting, you must bring in the girls sometime, I'd love to see how they're doing." She said, clapping her hands together.

"We'll bring them in next time." Neville agreed, sitting down next to Luna and taking her hand.

"Right, let's take a look at your baby." She said, taking out her wand and muttering a charm which made a picture pop up on the screen. Luna gasped, whenever she saw an image of her unborn child on one of these screens, it never stopped to amaze her. "It's all fine, the baby is healthy and well on its way to being born, would you like to know the gender?"

"Healer Smith, you have known us for seven years, have we ever wanted to know the gender before?" Luna said in a matter-of-fact tone as she got off the bed and

"I take that as a no then, now get out of here, I'm sure you're dying to tell your kids." She said, shooing them out of the room, "I'll see you in a couple of months for a check-up."

"Bye, Healer Smith."

* * *

Luna walked across the crisp grass, it was dusk and she and Neville had just finished explaining to the girls that they would have a little brother or sister, much to their pleasure. It was shortly after this that Luna had told Neville she was going to have a shower. However, as soon as she'd turned on the water, she'd apparated here, the place of mourning; the cemetery.

She wondered through the rows of headstones until she found the one that read

_Benjamin Neville Longbottom  
3__rd__ June 2006  
Our guardian angel_

She conjured a single red rose and placed it just below the headstone and knelt down beside it, a tear slipping down her face.

"Hi Ben," she said, despite the fact that she had never known her son, she still had a nickname for him, "It's mum." There was no reply, there never was. "I'm pregnant again Ben, that means that you would've had another brother or sister if you were here." She paused, wondering what else to say. "Ella's growing up fine, I wish you could see her now, Ben, she looks so much like your Dad. Sometimes I wonder if you were still alive if you two would look the same." She said, emotion clouding her voice. "Ella just doesn't seem complete without you; she doesn't know that of course, because she doesn't even know you ever existed, neither do Alice and Abi, but I can see it in her eyes, something that had been taken from her, you." Luna paused to wipe the tears away, she sniffed and continued.

"I wish that you could be alive, Ben, I wish it every day and I know your dad does as well, he's just too macho to show it. It's been two years, and not a day goes by that I don't think about you, and I promise that this baby isn't going to replace you. I will tell Ella about you someday, when she's ready and when she's old enough to understand. Then she can come and speak to you, won't that be nice."

Luna looked at her watch, it had been fifteen minutes and she ought to be getting back. "I've got to go now, Ben, but you know I'll be back soon."

She got up off her knees and planted a small kiss on the headstone, before apparating back into their bathroom just as Neville knocked on the door,

"Luna, dinner's ready."

"I'll be down in a minute," Luna said, trying to keep her voice level as she looked at herself in the mirror and the slowly growing baby bump and somehow, she knew that Ben would watch over her and his brother and made sure that no harm befell them.

* * *

**AN: Here we go, month three, we'll be getting to the good stuff soon. Like telling friend and family, baby shopping and a few dramas with family. *English accent* spoilers! **

**I love reviews and would absolutely love it if you left one :)**

**Until Next Time**

**~The Original Horcrux~**


End file.
